aka ‘The Orange Rag’ Top stories in this issue… Cuatrecasas brings in R&D and eyes startups p.2 DWF swaps out TRE 3E modules p.3 Caroline Hill talks cloud with the SRA’s policy head p.6 Ascential’s legal head calls for more innovation p.7 Gleneagles – thanks for all the snow p.9 All the latest wins and deals p.10 Bird & Bird to roll out The move comes as Jacks and her team help pave the way for Bird & Bird’s move to new, more agile UK Salesforce-based CRM premises at 12-14 Fetter Lane later this year, including installing Cisco Jabber, which allows fee-earners to access Bird & Bird is moving its client relationship management presence, instant messaging, video, voice messaging, system into the cloud with OnePlace, a client intelligence desktop sharing and conferencing from anywhere. solution based on the Salesforce platform, as it also takes It is currently being rolled out in the UK with a view steps to become more agile, including making a final to rolling it out across Asia Pacific and the rest of Europe after decision on whether to roll out Surface Pros to fee-earners. that. The 1032-lawyer firm recently introduced a new policy The top 20 law firm, led by IT director Karen Jacks, to encourage staff – male or female – to work more flexibly. selected OnePlace after an extensive pitch process and the Jacks said: “You leave the office but you don’t firm is just beginning to migrate across to the new platform. leave the job – you just flex your job around what OnePlace, which has offices in Sydney and Los needs to be done.” Angeles, integrates with firms’ internal systems including Bird & Bird’s new premises will see the firm exchange, time and billing, event management tools, ditch the two-person office in favour of a more human resources systems and fee-earners own calendars. accessible two-person pod. This has necessitated more It gives users a centralised view of clients mobility in telephony and more break out rooms. and contacts, including forthcoming events, meetings, publications, matters and tenders. BIRD & BIRD CONTINUES ON P.3 OnePlace uses a series of native apps for IOS, Android, BlackBerry or Windows and users can look up contact details and make notes on their phone or tablet. Taylor Wessing to OnePlace Proposal Builder enables them to build and export team profiles with information poplulated from the move data into Azure time and billing system, as well as draft and track tenders. However, the big selling point for Bird & Bird was Taylor Wessing has made the decision to move 80- that OnePlace customers have access to the Salesforce 90% of its data into the cloud with Microsoft Azure community and AppExchange, where they can select add-on over the next two years as the top 20 UK firm, led by apps. Integrations include Intapp TimeBuilder, NetDocuments chief information officer Kevin Harris, also prepares to and email marketing tools Concep and MailChimp. automate all of its legal precedents with ContractExpress. Jacks said: “We did a proof of concept in our The firm began discussing its data centre Brussels office last year and really liked the product. options at board level last October, prompted It’s the community and AppExchange we like.” by an ageing secondary data centre. The firm, which has entirely integrated technology The three key considerations focussed on by the firm, throughout its 28 offices across Europe, Asia and the Middle which also set up a project board to help lead the decision East, is staggering the transfer of its data to the new solution, making process, were security; the ability to guarantee starting with mailing lists and events. “Right now it’s about where the data is held; and client perception and buy-in. getting onto the platform and getting the data cleaned up and embedded. It will be a long programme,” said Jacks. TAYLOR WESSING TO MOVE DATA CONTINUES ON P.4 ® Have Proclaim is the only Practice CALL you Management Software solution 01274 704 100 heard? Endorsed by the Law Society. [email protected] Page 1 (291) March 2016 aka ‘The Orange Rag’ Cuatrecasas brings Bird & Bird to roll out in R&D budget and Salesforce-based CRM eyes startup market CONTINUED FROM FRONT COVER Cuatrecasas, Gonçalves Pereira has approved Jacks said: “We’re getting people to move around and make an ongoing research and development budget to it easier for people to work together – it’s a better use of explore new and innovative technology as the floor space. Iberian giant also analyses the legal technology “We’re not going completely agile – staff will still startup ecosystem with a view to deciding on have a ‘home desk.’ But it will be easier to get up and sit whether to begin investing in startups. down somewhere else.” The R&D budget – on which the firm She adds: “The thing we have had to overcome is specifically does not expect to see a return – will that spending time on a speakerphone won’t work in shared be used to experiment with new technology space. I can’t have whole floor disturbed and listening in but such as artificial intelligence solutions, natural then I can’t tell the client I need to ring off to go to a breakout language processing and semantic technology. room. So we’re choosing WiFi and headsets cleverly so The firm, led by chief information officer Francesc you can move while on the phone and patch people in.” Muñoz, will look at technology that has no This drive towards agility means that Bird & Bird proof of concept within the legal sector. is also currently deciding on whether to roll out Surface Pros Cuatrecasas has hired one new full-time to its fee-earners, where it is in the final stages of employee to work as part of a team within the IT making a decision. department that will monitor and test new technology “Our 11th floor will be entirely social space – without needing to get sign off on each occasion. there’s a café, huddle booth seating, and there’s been a big Muñoz said: “There is such a high momentum investment in how it will look – making it a nice space to in the legal sector and the amount of legal tech is socialise in and eat in or have a coffee chat. If we want growing so fast that to monitor it is challenging. people to embrace it need to give them the technology to The new guys are coming in with very nice, clever do that,” Jacks said. solutions to help business become faster and cheaper so a team is going to monitor and be able to test in a short period of time new things, without having Clients to go through back office. We need to be agile.” Muñoz has also been monitoring the expect legal technology startup market, including in technology Silicon Valley and he told Legal IT Insider: efficiency “Until now our business has not been to invest but in the future it may be interesting for us to Can your f irm deliver? invest in startups – right now we don’t know.” The move comes as the circa 950-lawyer firm rolls out NetDocuments as part of its ‘cloud first’ strategy, that has seen it move its development and test platform onto Microsoft Azure. The firm, which was one of the first to roll out Rekoop’s cloud-based time recording software and uses Thomson Reuters The leading continuous performance Elite’s Salesforce-based CRM system ContactNet, improvement program has yet to move its email system into the cloud as it is waiting for an additional layer of security that .Online Skills Evaluation Tools Microsoft has said it will deliver in the short term. .Workflow-based Online Learning Muñoz said: “Law firms are not about .Tracking, Delivery & Measurement Tools upgrading systems. If we rely on an agile .Managed Training Services solution, we can concentrate on things like .Works towards LTC4 Certification helping lawyers to manage new systems properly and understanding how they work so we can provide tools like AI. We are working on having Raise the bar with... a much deeper intimacy with our lawyers.” Technology training for the competitive edge [email protected] www.capensys.com Page 2 (291) March 2016 aka ‘The Orange Rag’ DWF swaps out Quote/Unquote TRE 3E modules “We are trying to get law firms to see that you can’t divorce risk and opportunity. When we talk about DWF is swapping out Thomson Reuters managing risk we don’t want you to be put off using Elite’s financial reporting and time capture technology. Lawyers tend to be risk averse. We’re solutions with QlikView and Intapp Time trying to say use innovation to deliver better services.” respectively, as the firm moves to limit the ...Crispin Passmore, SRA executive director for policy amount of direct interaction partners have with TRE’s practice management system 3E. The top 25 UK law firm, which was one of 15 years ago today… TRE’s first 3E clients and uses an old version of the system, needed a reporting tool that augments Following a hearing at Blackfriars Crown Court on 2nd many data sources and is easy to use. While many April 2001, Judge Brian Pryor QC placed a stay on newer clients of 3E use Elite Workspace, which proceedings to prosecute Kenneth Bagnall QC on 14 was launched in 2014, that integration platform counts of theft relating to the disappearance of £560,000 is not compatible with the old version of 3E.